ŞİRİN ELİ

Shehba – 35-year-old Hesna Mihemed Henan is one of the tens of thousands women, who have been forcibly displaced from Afrin. “We, as women of Afrin, are not used to being away from our homeland and living without working. As women of Afrin, we have not learned how to live without working,” she said, adding she has to work to meet the needs of her children.

Hesna Mihemed Henan has been working in a grocery store in Shehba. “We had to leave our homeland after Afrin was occupied. We had to settle in Shehba. I had to work to meet the needs of both my family and those who had to leave Afrin like me. In Afrin, I grew vegetables. I miss the days in Afrin when I worked in my garden. I cannot live without working. I still have the hope that we will return to Afrin one day. I am waiting for that day,” she told us.

“Our forced displacement is the biggest violence against us”

“Being involved in production makes us happy,” Hesna said, “Women of Afrin cannot hold on to life if they don’t work. I have been working in a grocery store since I came to Shehba. I work to meet the needs of my children. Women should stand against violence. Our forced displacement is the biggest violence against us.”